Sunday, October 2, 2011

Glasgow

With a local Glaswegian as our guide (slash bodyguard), we spent this past Friday and Saturday in Glasgow. The first (and last) time we were in Glasgow, we had stayed only a day, not wanting to be in the city after the sun went down. Right or wrong, we had expected a rough city prior to that first visit and we were terrified of it, thus we had planned our travels to get us out of there well before sundown. Happily, upon arrival our opinions instantly changed and, as the day progressed, our expectations wound up being proved completely inaccurate. Nonetheless, we hadn't bothered returning until a new friend, Adam, convinced us to spend more time there. This past Friday we returned.

We started our evening in the West End. It was super cute and reminded us of Montmartre in Paris. The scene was fun and normal (no street fights or thugs wielding pipes as weapons) and the bars Adam took us to, Grosvenor Cafe and Hillhead Bookclub, were both in old, gorgeous buildings. I could easily see myself living in this neighbourhood. It was a great re-introduction to Glasgow.

We started the next day with a hike up Gardner Street, the 'steepest street in Europe', on our way to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum where we spent some time getting some culture. It's nice to be able to stop into a free museum and see a Van Gogh, Monet, and Pissarro. We were also able to catch a bit of the organ recital as we left.

Afterwards, we traversed the city on foot to the east end, passing The People's Palace on our way to West Brewery for lunch, which wound up being closed for a wedding. Although a huge disappointment, we regrouped and headed to Home in Merchant City instead. We had a lovely meal at Home and decided to pub crawl our way back to the West End. We stopped at Waxy O'Connor's, an Irish pub in the city centre, and Chinaskis, a Bukowski fan pub on Sauchiehall, before heading back to Adam's for our bags.

We left Adam at the Partick underground station, on our way to Queen Street rail station where we would grab our train back to Dundee. Adam had proven to be a great host. We have similar tastes, so he knew exactly where to take us and what to show us. We had a great time with him and recommend his tour guide talents to everyone.

Glasgow is a great city. We felt safe the whole time and were never bored. The plethora of pubs, beautiful buildings, and pubs in beautiful buildings could keep us entertained for weeks on their own. The fact that Glasgow has so much more to offer than just those though, proves that we have many more eventful days to spend there.